One of my favorite times of year in B.C. I just wish it lasted about three months instead of one, so I could fit in more fishing destinations. Hard to decide between steelhead, salmon, trout fishing in both streams and stillwaters. Too many fish, too little time.

Just one more week of work to go, and my vacation starts: I'm off to the Chilcotin for two weeks of trout fishing, then to the Skeena country for three weeks of steelheading.

A wonderful time of the year indeed! I'm looking forward to jumping on the ferry to Prince Rupert and then heading up valley to those beautiful waters in the Skeena system. Perhaps I'll see you on the river Poul!

While I enjoy trout fishing and like to chase salmon too, I don't have a hard time deciding what to pursue!

The prime time for the steelheader with a fly rod! I've got the jones bad.

Despite being located on the other coast of the nation now, the cooling nights and shorter days have me thinking about giant fall caddis and greaselining low water flies and wakers for steelhead in the great western streams.

So much so that I have forfeited several great days of striper fishing just to cast, cast, cast away the day with my Spey rods and nothing more than a puff of yarn on the tippet.

At first I was satisfied with the neigborhood river, a sluggish frog pond of a thing. Soon I wanted the rush of the current so would drive well over an hour just to find a place to cast where the water resembled a "real" river wide enough to test the 10wt 15 ftr (not an easy feat in the northeast shy of the Merrimac and Connecticut Rivers). The discarded tires and concrete scenery was a little disturbing, but once into it nothing mattered but the little revelations that a whole day of fine tuning can bring.

The good thing about casting and not fishing is that I really think about what I am doing. The gentle raise of the rod to break tension, the dipping sweep and lifting kick; just a kiss of the grip and stroke from the firing position and the line sings out. When all goes right the grip touches down at the exact instant the D loop comes 'round and with nothing more than a very focused pump of the rod the line propells forward in a tight wedge over the target. It's kinda freaky, but I enjoy it as much as fishing itself sometimes.

Today, Domenic and I parked in a dubious area, dodged main route traffic and climbed down into a concrete canyon beneath towering smokestack trees to find the rush of water we needed to feel the swing of the line from both left and right banks.

Domenic is headed to the Skeena in two weeks, I am planning something on the far side of the cascades probably in October. For several hours, I "fished" the hookless yarn bug. I helped Domenic tweak out a couple of D loop drop-doldrums and he worked his way up to a great cast by the end of the day.

I cast left handed almost the entire time while helping Domenic (who is a lefty) and felt very comfortable with everything but the left handed reverse snake roll; got a few off ok. On right bank the snake roll felt real good from the right side, and with a lot of work over the last few weeks my single spey is getting pretty clean (thanks to Simon's coaching at the Sandy Clave this spring).

Anyway, didn't mean to ramble on... but you don't have to be living in steelhead country to feel the call. I will be there soon, and I will be ready.

It's like that crispness of fall hits automatically sept 1st. In fact, was so good, that some summerrun steelies fell to the fly on a river most have deemed "unfishable" due to low water. :hehe: Was a good weekend. Plus, a good change of the dry stagnant heat we've had this summer. Nothing like that smell of fall.

Now, all I need is my neck/shoulder to heal up so I can run my cataraft and I'll be happy. I'm not sure if my girlfriend (Rivergal) wants to run the upper Hoh until she has a few more hours on the sticks. I can't put the type of pressure on sticks I need. But I can still toss a bugrod.

__________________"Good angling ethic is not a monopoly practiced just by fly fisherman" - Bill McMillanSteelheader.net

Originally posted by juro Anyway, didn't mean to ramble on... but you don't have to be living in steelhead country to feel the call. I will be there soon, and I will be ready.

Any details yet???

Sekiu is smokin and heard a very good report from the west side of Whidbey over the weekend. The fishing was not smoking like it can be this time of year but it was very very good...much better then reports from the previous weekends.

Do remember though, that Sekiu close to all salmon fishing in October.

Ahhhh, September. One of my favorite times. Like Steelheader 69 I found a summer fish in yesterday's rain on a low water wet in an area that has been deemed without fish or at least so low that it is said to be a waste of time fishing it. Unfortunately, I broke the fish off by putting too much pressure on the 6 pound tippet about 5 minutes into the fight. Oh well, I would have released it anyway.

I have a real problem thin time of year deciding where to go. There is some very fine summer fishing on the Cascade and upper South Fork Sky, upper South Fork Stilly, the Methow (at least the 8 or so miles that are open to month's end), the Hoh, especially the South Fork, the twolower drifts on the Sol Duc, parts of the Bogey, and the upper Calawa. I also greatly miss the Wenatchee.

Then there are the wonderful silver runs on the Skagit, Sky, and Sol Duc. Followed by some truly amazing chum fishing on the Skagit in November.

So many fish, so many rivers, and not nearly enough days to fish. Fall fishing, got to love it!

I've rung up a sizeable phone bill calling you but you're never there! Got a lot of job/family schedules to juggle and a decision to make between BC natives and the coho/summer run combination. Also wanted to make the Rhody conclave if possible.

Currently leaning toward BC steel (did coho last year and BC the year before) but I will never be happy skipping one or the other!